“Adam and Eve wanted to be like you, knowing good and evil. Why is that so bad?”

“Because those are two entirely different things, being “like me” and “knowing good and evil”. They knew evil by experiencing evil. They participated in evil but there is no evil in me. So, it wasn’t an innocent desire to be like me.” He looked up into the night sky for a long moment and then spoke again.

“They were already created in my image,” he said. “They are like me in many ways. This was something more. They wanted the knowledge of good and evil, thinking that they would have the power to decide between the two, to choose for themselves what they wanted, as if evil was an option for them, even if I didn´t like it. They made the freedom of their choices more important than the slavery of a loving relationship with me as their Father and Creator. They wanted to take my place, to decide things for themselves and thereby make me irrelevant.” He paused, the look on his face unreadable. “They kicked me out.”

“They wanted to take your place?”

“In relation to their lives, yes. Often in relation to others as well.”

“Is that so bad?” I said. “Don’t you want them to make their own decisions?”

“Yes, of course. Decisions and judgments and choices but in the context of a relationship with their Father, their Creator.”

“So, this was a way of saying that they didn’t want you in their lives at all anymore.”

“Exactly. But that is impossible. It simply isn’t an option.”

“Why not?”

“For one thing, that is the point of being the Creator. I am essential to life. Even more, a conscious relationship with me is essential to their natures, to their eternal lives. That’s how I created them. But there is another reason.” He paused. “Even if I was prepared to remain on the sidelines – which I’m not – it still wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?” I repeated.

“Because they weren’t created to make the ultimate decisions about right and wrong. That’s my job. Only I can see the consequences of every action, only I have all of the pertinent information and can process it appropriately, only I have the ability to control events and protect them so that the intended consequences of their actions are accomplished.”

“I never thought of it that way before,” I said.

“They need me whether they like it or not. I am essential to life in every way imaginable.” He stopped for a moment and looked at me curiously. “But there is one more reason, the essential reason, why life and morality does not work without my active involvement.”

“What is it, Lord?” I was truly entranced.

“Because morality is intrinsic to the structures of the world, and the structures of the world are a reflection of my nature. It is my fellowship within the divine that is the ground and the pattern for good and evil. There can be no other.”